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Three gold writing needles with nibs of Mohenjo-daro to engrave or paint Indus Script hieroglyphs are presented.
Inscription painted on one of the needles is a gold pendant of Mohenjo-daro deciphered is a professional calling card of a metalworker.
“Period II at Mehrgarh…evidence of long-distance trade…in the form of conch shells from the Arabian Sea, some 500 km. away, and further objects of turquoise. Also a small perforated pendant of lead is recorded, perhaps too an object of trade rather than of local production. Whichever is the case, it is the earliest known occurrence of the metal before the Harappan period.” (Allchin, Bridget and Raymond Allchin, 1982, The rise of civilization in India and Pakistan, CUP, p.107).
Coloured stone inlays, pigments in inlays
![Sumerian marble calf with inlaid trefoils of blue stone. From the late Uruk era, cira 3000 B.C.]()
Sumerian marble calf with inlaid trefoils of blue stone. From the late Uruk era, Jemdet Nasr cira 3300 - 2900 B.C.E 5.3 cm. long; Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
Steatite statue fragment; Mohenjodaro (Sd 767); trefoil-decorated bull; traces of red pigment remain inside the trefoils. After Ardeleanu-Jansen 1989: 196, fig. 1.Vermillion filled lines incised on turbinella pyrum conch-shells
Slide 85. Libation vessels made of the conch shell Turbinella pyrum. One of these is decorated with vermilion filled incised lines. A single spiraling design is carved around the apex and a double incised line frames the edge of the orifice. This type of vessel was used in later times for ritual libations and for administering sacred water or medicine to patients.
Material: marine shell, Turbinella pyrum
Dimensions of the left vessel: 11.4 cm length, 5.4 cm width, 4.7 cm height.
Mohenjo-daro, DK 8538
Mohenjo-daro Museum, 52.2114, MM5073
Kenoyer 1983: 183-4, fig. 3-15, 5.
Material: marine shell, Turbinella pyrum
Dimensions of the left vessel: 11.4 cm length, 5.4 cm width, 4.7 cm height.
Mohenjo-daro, DK 8538
Mohenjo-daro Museum, 52.2114, MM5073
Kenoyer 1983: 183-4, fig. 3-15, 5.
Red pigment (vermillion?) had filled the trefoil and dotted circle hieroglyphs on the statue:
पोतृ pōtSlide 41 harappa.com Seated male sculpture, or "Priest King" from Mohenjo-daro. Fillet or ribbon headband with circular inlay ornament on the forehead and similar but smaller ornament on the right upper arm. The two ends of the fillet fall along the back and though the hair is carefully combed towards the back of the head, no bun is present. The flat back of the head may have held a separately carved bun as is traditional on the other seated figures, or it could have held a more elaborate horn and plumed headdress. Two holes beneath the highly stylized ears suggest that a necklace or other head ornament was attached to the sculpture. The left shoulder is covered with a cloak decorated with trefoil, double circle and single circle designs that were originally filled with red pigment. Drill holes in the center of each circle indicate they were made with a specialized drill and then touched up with a chisel. Eyes are deeply incised and may have held inlay. The upper lip is shaved and a short combed beard frames the face. The large crack in the face is the result of weathering or it may be due to original firing of this object.Material: white, low fired steatiteDimensions: 17.5 cm height, 11 cm widthMohenjo-daro, DK 1909National Museum, Karachi, 50.852
Marshall 1931: 356-7, pl. XCVIII
Marshall 1931: 356-7, pl. XCVIII
Ivory rod, Needle-endings of Gold pendants as writing instruments of Indus Script scribes
Red paint on the tip of an ivory rod discovered in Lothal in a toilet set of combs, suggests that women of the civilization could have used the ivory rods to inscribe Indus Script hieroglyphs.
This 2.5 inch long gold pendant has a 0.3 inch nib; its ending is shaped like a sewing or netting needle. It bears an inscription painted in Indus Script. This inscription is deciphered as a proclamation of metalwork competence.
This 2.5 inch long gold pendant has a 0.3 inch nib; its ending is shaped like a sewing or netting needle. It bears an inscription painted in Indus Script. This inscription is deciphered as a proclamation of metalwork competence.
The comments made by John Marshall on three curious objects at bottom right-hand corner of Pl. CLI, B3: “Personal ornaments…Jewellery and Necklaces…Netting needles (?) Three very curious objects found with the studs and the necklace appear to be netting needles of gold. They are shown just above the ear-studs and also in the lower right-hand corner of Pl. CLI, B, 3-5 and 12-14. The largest of these needles (E 2044a) is 2.5 inches long. The handle is hollow and cylindrical and tapers slightly, being 0.2 inch in diameter at the needle-end. The needle point is 0.5 inch long and has a roughly shaped oval eye at its base. The medium sized needle (E 2044b) is 2.5 inches long and of the same pattern: but the cap that closed the end of the handle is now missing. The point which has an oval eye at its base is 0.3 inch long. The third needle (E 2044c) is only 1.7 inches long with the point 0.3 inch in length. Its handle, which is otherwise similar to those of the other two needles, is badly dented. The exact use of these three objects is open to question, for they could have been used for either sewing or netting. The handles seem to have been drawn, as there is no sign of a soldered line, but the caps at either end were soldered on with an alloy that is very little lighter in colour than the gold itself. The two smaller needles have evidently been held between the teeth on more than one occasion.” (p.521)
Evidently, Marshall has missed out on the incription written in paint, as a free-hand writing, over one of the objects: Pl. CLI, B3.
This is an extraordinary evidence of the Indus writing system written down, with hieroglyphs inscribed using a coloured paint, on an object.
What could these three objects be? Sewing needles? Netting needles?
I surmise that all the three gold objects could be pendants tagged to other jewellery such as necklaces. The pendants were perhaps worn with a thread of fibre passing through the eye of the needle-like ending of the pendants.
Why needle-like endings? Maybe, the pendants were used as 'writing' devices 1) either to engrave hieroglyphs into objects; 2)or to use the needle-ending like a metal nib to dip into a colored ink or liquid or zinc-oxide paste or cinnabar-paste. This possibility is suggested by the use of cinnabar in ancient China to paint into lacquer plates or bowls. Cinnabar or powdered mercury sulphide was the primary colorant lof lacquer vessels. "Known in China during the late Neolithic period (ca. 5000–ca. 2000 B.C.), lacquer was an important artistic medium from the sixth century B.C. to the second century A.D. and was often colored with minerals such as carbon (black), orpiment (yellow), and cinnabar (red) and used to paint the surfaces of sculptures and vessels...a red lacquer background is carved with thin lines that are filled with gold, gold powder, or lacquer that has been tinted black, green, or yellow." http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2009/cinnabar
西漢 黑地朱繪雲氣紋漆碗
Bowl with Geometric Designs
Period: Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)
Date: 2nd century B.C.
Culture: China
Medium: Black lacquer painted with red lacquer
Dimensions: H. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm); Diam. 10 7/16 in. (26.5 cm)
Classification: Lacquer
Credit Line: Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Gift, 1994
Accession Number: 1994.44 On view in Gallery 221 Metmuseum. This artwork is part of Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer
The decipherment of the inscription on one of these three gold pendants points to the function of the writing system as a catalogue proclaiming the profession and metalwork competence of the pendant wearer.
I would, therefore, suggest that the three gold pendants with needle-like endings were 'writing' instruments to engrave or paint Indus Script hieroglyphs.
See:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/indus-script-examples-of-free-hand.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/03/a-tribute-to-rick-willis-who.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/08/indus-script-bronze-age-inscriptions-on.html?view=timeslide
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/decoding-longest-inscription-of-indus.html Gold pendant with Indus script inscription. The pendant is needle-like with cylindrical body. It is made from a hollow cylinder with soldered ends and perforated joint. Museum No. MM 1374.50.271; Marshall 1931: 521, pl. CLI, B3 (After Fig. 4.17 a,b in: JM Kenoyer, 1998, p. 196).
aya 'fish' Rebus: aya 'iron'(Gujarati) ayas 'metal' (Rigveda)
Thus, the inscription is: kancu sal (bronze workshop), dhatu aya kaṇḍ kolami mineral, metal, furnace/fire-altar smithy.
The inscription is a professional calling card -- describing professional competence and ownership of specified items of property -- of the wearer of the pendant.
![Inline image 1]()
Nausharo: female figurine. Period 1B, 2800 – 2600 BCE. 11.6 x 30.9 cm.[After Fig. 2.19, Kenoyer, 1998]. Red paint showing sindhur at the parting of the hair;Hair painted black;Necklaces Painted golden. I don't think there is any need for any kind of special pleading to define the speech area of 2000 out of 2600 sites of the civilization which are on the banks of River Sarasvati. The sindhur so emphatically presented on the māng of these two exquisite toys renders me speechless, they speak Prākritam vāk. Pk. vakka-- n.; K. wākh, dat. °kas m. ʻ speech, voice ʼ, adj. at end of cmpds. -- wôku (CDIAL 11468).
Vermilion pigment is generally made from powdered mineral cinnabar, used as sindoor (some times made of zinc oxide and dye) in Bharat, India.
kuṅkumam (Sanskrit कुङ्कुमम्), kumkuma (Teluguకుంకుమ, kunku (Marathi कुंकू), kumkum (Bengali কুমকুম, Hindi कुमकुम), kunkumam (Tamil குங்குமம்),Kannada ಕುಂಕುಮ ), Kungkumam (Malayalam കുങ്കുമം). Red kumkuma or sindoor is applied by Bharatiya women to the parting of their hair -- maang tikka -- above their forehead every day as a symbol of marriage . The turmeric is dried and powdered with a bit of slaked lime, which turns the rich yellow powder into a red color. Use of haldi (turmeric) and kumkum (vermilion powder), are defining cultural traditions of Bharatiya women.
Bride with decorative bindis and maang tikka (part of Suhāg or lucky trousseau at marriages) --between hair parting where married women apply sindoor.
Cinnabar crystals on dolomite from Tongren Prefecture, Guizhou, China. Cinnabar is a source for the brilliant red or scarlet pigment termed vermilion.
The first documented use of cinnabar or vermilion pigment was found at the neolithic village of Çatalhöyük in modern-day Turkey. This mural, from 7000–8000 BC, shows aurochs, a deer and humans. (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara).
The vermillion-filled conch-shells used as libation vessels, the terracotta toys showing sindoor at maang, hair-parting of married women are emphatic evidences of the continuity of cultural traditions of Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization in Indian sprachbund (speech area), thus justifying the use of Proto-Prakritam as the language of Indus Script cipher, as the language of the artisans of the civilization who have provided Indus Script Corpora of over 7000 inscriptions.
The metalwork lexis of Proto-Prakritam is found in almost all Indian languages.
Indian sprachbund (speech area) explains the reason why many Indus Script hieroglyphs used to catalogue metalwork, continue to be used on early punch-marked and cast metal coins of Ancient India.
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
November 7, 2015